ede Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Think I have my wife interested in trying USPSA for the first time. She's an experienced shooter and has shot a lot of competition, GSSF and Steel Challenge. Any tips to help her along at her first match without stressing her out? She'll know some of the shooters form steel matches and the local match is pretty low key and simple stage set ups. I want her to have a good time and be safe, not worry about time or scores. I know she gets stressed when ROs think she doesn't know how to operate her pistol and try to help. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Power Jack Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 If she's experienced with GSSF & SC's under her belt - sounds like a firm foundation to shoot a low key local USPSA match. Might want to mention to the RO that she's experienced so (s)he doesn't "bother her" by helping her with loading her pistol. Might just mention that the first time at USPSA, the ONLY objective is DON'T DQ - BE SAFE. Good luck - hope she has a ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverBolt Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Be safe and don't DQ. Teach her the 180 and how to reload on the fly. She will do fine. My wife started the same way a year ago. GSSF, then one steel match, and on to USPSA. Teach her the safety side of the game. The rest will come. Finger off the trigger is a big one for new shooters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HI5-O Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Are there other female shooters competing that she knows? Maybe they can help her because I believe they can help her more than a bunch of guys can (just saying). Her first experience will be the deciding factor if she continues competing or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverBolt Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 HI5-0 nailed it. If her first experience is a bad one good luck on getting her to go again. Try and squad with other ladies if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ede Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) Might be a 14yo girl other wise no women, very small club. On the plus side she does know and has shot with several of the men there. Besides being safe an going slow I worry about her getting too much to do and remember and feeling like she can't keep her head above water. Thanks for the replies. Edited October 1, 2014 by ede Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverBolt Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 No way to know that unless she tries. Show up early and walk each stage. Talk her through each stage. Make her runs as simple as possible and keep the gaming to a minimum. Set up a dryfire stage at home and you be the RO. Use a timer and be strict on the safety rules. Get her used to moving with a gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigarm Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Go and have fun! It is one more way to spend time with your wife. My wife and I started cowboy action shooting together and did that for several years, then took a break and this year began USPSA and 3 gun shooting together. Great way to spend time together. We even make mini vacations out of some of the matches and spend the night at a motel for out of town matches. Of course, every match is out of town for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMike Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Think I have my wife interested in trying USPSA for the first time. She's an experienced shooter and has shot a lot of competition, GSSF and Steel Challenge. Any tips to help her along at her first match without stressing her out? She'll know some of the shooters form steel matches and the local match is pretty low key and simple stage set ups. I want her to have a good time and be safe, not worry about time or scores. I know she gets stressed when ROs think she doesn't know how to operate her pistol and try to help. Thanks in advance. There is lots of good advice here. This very issue has been kicked around in my neck of the woods in the last few weeks. I have been provided with a USPSA study guide that contains study material and questions. This guide is extremely well written and I believe, if the reader spends a little time with it, that first USPSA match will go very well for her. I did not write this guide. It was originally written for a club in the NE and has been re-written and edited by an acquaintance of mine. If you will shoot me a PM with your email, I will email you the guide. Edited October 2, 2014 by JMike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elguapo Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I know she gets stressed when ROs think she doesn't know how to operate her pistol and try to help. Thanks in advance. Outside of the rare, idiot chauvinist, most ROs look at an unknown shooter's confidence in handling and operating firearms as a quick way to size someone up on initial impression. Your wife sounds like she's confident in manipulating a pistol. Your advice to her should be to look and act confident when taking her place on the hot seat. To draw, load, and holster that pistol purposefully and confidently. And to be assertive in the rare case she runs into a DB wanting to help the "little lady". A curt "I've got this" to someone wanting to "help" should shut that down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimo-Hombre Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I know she gets stressed when ROs think she doesn't know how to operate her pistol and try to help. Thanks in advance.Outside of the rare, idiot chauvinist, most ROs look at an unknown shooter's confidence in handling and operating firearms as a quick way to size someone up on initial impression.Your wife sounds like she's confident in manipulating a pistol. Your advice to her should be to look and act confident when taking her place on the hot seat. To draw, load, and holster that pistol purposefully and confidently. And to be assertive in the rare case she runs into a DB wanting to help the "little lady". A curt "I've got this" to someone wanting to "help" should shut that down. This is pretty well said. Beyond the approach mentioned above, just go with it. If you put it on yourself to try and control her experience its gonna go to sh!t at some point. Let her find her own way. If it don't work out, it's probably because she was only shooting to please you anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reshoot Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Be safe and don't DQ. Teach her the 180 and how to reload on the fly. She will do fine. My wife started the same way a year ago. GSSF, then one steel match, and on to USPSA. Teach her the safety side of the game. The rest will come. Finger off the trigger is a big one for new shooters. Yeah, getting the finger off the trigger is the one that lingered for my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonOfSpartans Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I had this experience over the past weekend. I took an experienced but still new lady to the USPSA with me. She promptly got wound up by all the things in her head and her self imposed pressure to do well. We had an M/GM in our small squad and that put the light on how much there is to learn and know.I tried not to fill her head with too much. Encourage her on what went well, even if it was only one aspect of a stage. (You hit the steel well. You hit all your reloads at the right spot. You executed your plan.) Focusing on that instead of three mikes, flat foot reload and so on. Fundamentals can go out the window when the buzzer goes off. The front sight disappears, the grip draw is poor and transitions are transient. It can be frustrating when one KNOWS they can shoot better. By the middle of the match she started to settle down and take constructive input. "Watch the trigger finger on reloads. Did you notice how you fixed your grip after a few shots?" and so on. She was still not happy. So.......... If you can, be prepared for this suggestion. We were able to linger in a stage at the end of the match. I had her run live fire drills of drawing and taking a single a zone hit while I was the start timer. Then draw to a shot with a transition. Then draw to a single shot on a mini popper. Then transitions. Her shooting tightened right up as the fundamentals tightened up and she finished by shooting a nice tight group in the head of a target at seven yards. She even expressed that she was finally feeling like she was "seeing the sights" as I have been describing to her for some time. (She is a very good rifle shot but tends to argue with her pistol)The end result is she left smiling and now sees the benefit in some drill practice prior to her next outing. She was on line last night looking for the pieces to finish tuning out her pistol wish list for the near term. YAY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathandewalt Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 My wife has recently started shooting with us and the biggest thing I would say it to tell her to listen to everything everyone has to say and forget it. I was amazed how many people want to give advise to a new female shooter. Most of the advise was good but not things that she needed to be worrying about at her first match. I really enjoy having her out there shooting with us and hope that she continues. She is improving really fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitvpr Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Give her plenty of encouragement, to have fun, be safe, and don't stress, it's not a competition with anyone else except your own ability to perform up to your own expectation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonOfSpartans Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I am happy for her. The gentleman acting as RO did a great job helping her feel comfortable and welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afletcher1965 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 That's awesome! Gotta love girls with guns! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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